The long anticipated Province-wide 911 Emergency Response System is now here. At a press conference on Tuesday May 30, 2000, the five partners of the Prince Edward Island 911 Project officially announced that 911 is now operational throughout Prince Edward Island as of 12:01 AM, Monday May 29th.
"This is certainly a historic day for all Islanders, as Prince Edward Island joins most provinces, territories and states in North America in offering to residents and visitors, the ability to access emergency services quickly through 911," stated Premier Pat Binns.
The five 911 Project partners include the Government of Prince Edward Island, Island Telecom Inc., the City of Summerside, the City of Charlottetown, and the RCMP. The Project was officially announced in June of 1998, when a Memorandum of Understanding was signed by all partners to bring 911 to Prince Edward Island.
As of May 29th, all emergency calls to police, fire and ambulance services on the Island must to be made to 911. All calls made to 911 go to one of three Public Safety Answering Points. Information on the location of the call, a 911 civic address, appears instantaneously on the 911 call-takers computer screen, and, depending on the nature of the emergency, this important civic address information is relayed to the appropriate emergency service provider who can best answer that emergency.
"Assigning a civic address to all improved properties throughout Prince Edward Island was one of the major tasks to be completed for this system to work," stated Gail Shea, Minister of Community & Cultural Affairs, the Provincial Government Department responsible for management of the 911 system. "State of the art Global Positioning Systems were used to assign civic addresses all across the Province. With the collaboration of the Taxation and Property Records Division of the PEI Department of the Provincial Treasury, we now have a complete civic address inventory of all improved properties on PEI," said the Minister.
The benefits of a 911 system are many. 911 is a short, easy number to remember and is universally known in North America as the number to call for police, fire and ambulance emergencies. It also provides a civic address for easier identification of the location of the emergency. 911 calls originating from cellular telephones, however, will not show an address, so a caller will be asked specific questions as to the location of the emergency taking place.